Wedding Photography

I am photographing a wedding today. I have done this before, although it is not my normal activity (nor, necessarily, my favourite thing to do). Simon and Meyrem know my work, and wanted a low-key, documentary style. It is not a big affair, although I expect the beautiful (and small) church of St Mary’s at Charlecombe will be totally full.

In any event, I have met with them and attended the rehearsal. Debbie, the priest, was pleasantly surprised as often photographers just show up a few minutes before the wedding and ask ‘do you have any rules’?.

It has prompted me to do a little research into the local wedding scene. Not surprisingly, it is a busy one, centred on the lovely town of Bath.

Tom Smith

Simon Biffen

Lee Niel

Beata Cosgrove

Betty Bhandari

Chris & Hazel

Andrew Brennan

Allister Freeman

Obviously ‘documentary’ is the name of the wedding game, and there are many styles out there. I am not going to get into a serious ‘critical / comparative review’, as all of these photographers seem both successful and have some lovely testimonials. But what did strike me though was three broad thoughts.

First, there is quite a lot of heavily processed work out there – heavy blacks, saturated colours, ‘dream’ styles and so forth.

Second, there is a blend of colour and black & white in all of these portfolios – though the cheeky me wonders if that covers image problems?

Third, there are a few ‘natural colour’ photographers, but, unless my sample is lacking, they are the minority.

Food for thought.